5th-shot Theory Told For Goetz

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Bernhard Goetz put a pyschiatrist on the stand Wednesday in an effort to show that Goetz did not pause before he fired the controversial fifth and final shot on a subway train.

Dr. Bernard Yudowitz, an expert on the body`s response to fear, said that in life-threatening situations, a person`s adrenaline system puts the body on ``automatic pilot`` so that the mind does not control what the body does.

``Once the body starts the action, it continues the action until completed,`` Yudowitz said. ``In other words, it`s the body that is in control at that time, not the mind.``

Goetz is charged with attempted murder.

His attorneys argue that he fired five shots in rapid succession at four black youths whom he feared were about to rob him. Under the defense theory, if the first shot were justified by reason of self-defense, then all five were justified.

This strategy is designed to counter the prosecution`s most damaging evidence--Goetz`s own taped confession in which he said he paused before the fifth shot and said to one of the youths, ``You seem to be all right, here`s another.``

That youth, Darrell Cabey, was paralyzed from the waist down and suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries.

None of the witnesses on the train have testified to hearing Goetz make that remark and his lawyers say the comment and the pause were imagined by Goetz in the excitement of the shooting.

Yudowitz`s testimony also tends to back up a part of Goetz`s confession when he described how he lost control during the shooting.

``Once the time comes to act,`` Goetz said, ``you don`t think, you react because . . . the lower levels of your brain are going to take care of everything for you.``

On cross-examination, Yudowitz acknowledged that reactions to stressful situations vary from individual to individual.

``So your testimony should not be construed as to how this individual would respond to stress on Dec. 22, 1984?`` asked prosecutor Gregory Waples.

``Yes,`` Yudowitz replied.

Earlier Wednesday, Police Officer Peter Smith again refused under stiff cross-examination to budge from his story that one of the victims told him just after the shooting that ``we were going to rob him but the white guy shot us first.``

However, he conceded he was less than truthful to a television reporter who interviewed him the day of the shooting. Smith told the reporter only that the victim had been ``fooling around with the guy`` and made no mention of the robbery motive.

Asked by Goetz`s lawyer, Barry Slotnick, why he misled the reporter, Smith said, ``I was nervous. I had never been interviewed before.``

Smith maintains that he told detectives about the remark later on the day of the shooting but he admitted Wednesday that he did not tell detectives the substance of the explosive quote.